1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus for discharging ink onto a recording medium to record thereon.
2. Related Background Art
In recent years, an ink jet recording apparatus for discharging ink onto a recording medium for forming an image or the like has been spectacularly pervasive for office and home use. The pervasion owes not only to an improvement in the recording speed and a reduction in price, but also to higher definition of a recorded image. In order to achieve the higher definition of the recorded image, a reduced diameter and higher density of ink discharging ports of an ink jet recording head are indispensable, and as the result, the size of ink droplets discharged therefrom has also been reduced.
However, the reduction in size of the ink droplets has given rise to a problem that, when ink is discharged, a minute ink particles called ink mist are generated, and the ink mist disperses and stains a recording medium and the inside of the recording apparatus. Further, when the ink mist dispersed in the recording apparatus deposits on a mechanism for recording operation in the recording apparatus, means for controlling therefor, or the like, malfunction may be caused. In order to prevent the malfunction, the recording apparatus may be provided with a suction fan to employ a method of collecting the dispersed ink mist making use of the suction fan. However, when the ink jet recording apparatus is used for long time, another problem has been caused that the ink mist sucked by the fan is deposited in a sucking route to gradually reduce a sucking efficiency, and further, the ink mist is deposited too much in the sucking route to hold the ink mist therein.